Track Record

The numbers that pay the wages

Every result on this page was made inside a live P&L, not advised from outside one. Steve Webster has run retail and ecommerce P&Ls since 1999, across the UK, EU, US and GCC, in apparel and footwear, consumer electronics, homewares and publishing, from fast fashion to premium heritage, under start-up, founder-led, PE-backed and PLC ownership. The numbers that follow were built inside that range, not observed from outside it.

The experience

Retail and ecommerce P&Ls, run since 1999

Markets
UK, EU, US and GCC
Categories
Apparel and footwear, consumer electronics, homewares, publishing
Brands
Fast fashion to premium heritage
Ownership
Start-up, founder-led, PE-backed and PLC

+50%

international growth

Role: Global Ecommerce Director

+50% international growth: Global Ecommerce Director, heritage apparel

Five-year targets, delivered in two

A British heritage brand’s first standalone global ecommerce director, inheriting a channel trading below the brand’s stature and leaning on discount. The decision that mattered: the full-price transition, holding the line against promotional dependency while the top line still had to grow. Over 50% growth across priority international markets, profit contribution up 60% on a flat marketing budget, organic search from 15% to over 30%. Customers bought at full price and came back more often: 1.6 purchases a year, up from 1.3.

22%

of revenue, up from 9%

Role: Ecommerce Director

22% of revenue, up from 9%: Ecommerce Director, consumer electronics

£60m to £240m in three years

MENA’s largest electronics retailer, a £1bn PLC where ecommerce sat at 9% of revenue and was treated accordingly. The decisions that mattered: persuading the board to fund brand and editorial content over promotional noise, building a content function from zero to make the business the most trusted voice in its category, and reimagining digital marketing around it: CRM rebuilt on language, category affinity and lifecycle, and performance media at pace, including app acquisition validated by controlled lift studies at 21x ROAS. Digital contribution grew from 9% to 22% within two years at 170% annual growth, and customers who had never trusted buying electronics online made it their first choice.

82%

growth, three years running

Role: Head of Ecommerce

82% growth, three years running: Head of Ecommerce, furniture retail

Negligible to £30m in three years

The UK’s largest furniture retailer: 400 stores, a business built on Sunday showroom traffic, and an ecommerce channel generating next to nothing. The decisions that mattered: building the channel as a business unit rather than a website, with its own platform, team and P&L, and pioneering measurement that proved digital’s impact on in-store sales, published as a Google case study, turning the store estate from digital’s rival into its beneficiary. Three consecutive years of 82% growth followed. Customers had been shopping across both all along; the business finally saw it, measured it, and served it.

120%

year-on-year growth

Roles: Head of Ecommerce; Head of Online

120% year-on-year growth: Head of Ecommerce and Head of Online, online fashion

Where it started, 1999 to 2014

An early senior ecommerce appointment at a fashion business that grew into one of the UK’s biggest online retailers: 120% year-on-year growth, the first enterprise replatform, and two appearances in Vogue’s 100 Most Influential in Online Fashion. Then the UK’s largest footwear brand by volume, taking its US launch to profitability inside three months. Fifteen years of platform builds and turnarounds, mostly before boards had a digital agenda.

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Barking Cat, Commerce Advisory

Barking Cat Advisory is an independent ecommerce and commercial advisory practice for UK retail and consumer businesses, giving boards and private equity investors an operator’s judgement before they commit to technology, transformation or growth investment. Founded by Steve Webster, who has run retail and ecommerce P&Ls since 1999.

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